Tigers take Mahomes in 37th round

Saturday

Jun 7, 2014 at 4:47 PM

Don Williams

The Detroit Tigers chose Texas Tech football and baseball signee Patrick Mahomes in the 37th round of the Major League Baseball draft Saturday.

Mahomes, a pitcher, told the Avalanche-Journal late Friday that on the last day of the three-day draft no team would be able to offer a signing bonus high enough to keep him from playing for Tech next season.

The Tigers apparently will take a shot anyway.

Mahomes, a 6-foot-2 1/2, 212-pound three-sport star from Whitehouse, was a Tech quarterback signee in February and also has plans to pitch for the Tech baseball team.

Mahomes flew to Lubbock on Saturday and attended the Red Raiders' 1-0 super regional victory against College of Charleston. He also was in Lubbock last weekend for Tech orientation and said he would start summer school on Monday if he wasn't drafted high enough to suit him.

Major League Baseball assigns each team a bonus pool and pick values for every player in the top 10 rounds - a recommendation for what each player should receive based on where he was drafted. The value for players drafted at the end of the 10th round was $137,600.

Players drafted after the 10th round may not receive more than $100,000.

Teams routinely exceed assigned values in offering bonuses. But the five-year collective bargaining agreement that went into effect for 2012 provides little wiggle room. Teams that exceed their bonus pool by less than 5 percent are taxed, and an overage of 5 percent triggers loss of draft picks - a limit that no team has reached in the last two years.

The 40-round draft wrapped up Saturday.

Also selected on the final day were Lubbock Christian University catcher Wigberto Nevarez to the Atlanta Braves in the 20th round, Tech shortstop Tim Proudfoot by the Oakland A's in the 21st round, former Monterey catcher Tyler Pearson to the Chicago Cubs in the 25th round, and Tech pitcher Dominic Moreno by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 33rd round.

Nevarez, a 6-3, 225-pound senior from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, hit .384 this season with 10 home runs and 42 runs batted in, helping LCU go 39-10. He was named first-team all-Heartland Conference and all-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Pearson, a former All-South Plains and second-team all-state catcher at Monterey, is a 6-1, 202-pound senior at Texas State. He threw out 25 of 50 would-be base stealers this season for a team that finished 30-28. Pearson batted .222 with five homers and 22 RBIs.

Proudfoot and Moreno both have college eligibility remaining. Proudfoot, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior from North Bend, Wash., has made only two errors all season and is batting .317 with 19 runs batted in.

Moreno, a 5-11, 185-pound junior from Farmington, N.M., is 4-5 with a 3.17 earned-run average.

don.williams@lubbockonline.com

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